


It Won't Happen Again

by paranoid_parallax



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Chains, Dehydration, Embarrassment, Gen, Guilt, Head Injury, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Imprisonment, Injury, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Urination, Wetting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22300750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranoid_parallax/pseuds/paranoid_parallax
Summary: This wasn’t how Shiro wanted his team to find him.
Relationships: Shiro & Voltron Paladins
Kudos: 53





	It Won't Happen Again

This wasn’t how Shiro wanted his team to find him.

He’d been chained for hours with his arms above his head— how many, he couldn’t be sure. It might have been an entire day, though maybe it only felt that long.

All he knew was that he’d lost and regained the feeling in his flesh arm multiple times, the sensation painful and stinging each time the limb transferred between relatively normal and thoroughly asleep. His throat was so dry, he wasn’t sure he could speak if he tried— he wanted water so badly it was almost all he could think about, despite the situation. At some point, he’d urinated on himself, unable to hold it any longer and with no sign of his captors returning. That part was the most humiliating— he needed desperately to get out of here, but didn’t want his team to see him like this. Finding him chained and helpless and dehydrated would have been bad enough on its own.

The injuries he’d sustained during his capture had gone untreated. Blood oozed from multiple wounds— apart from the minor bruises and scrapes and aches everywhere, he knew there was a gash on his abdomen, albeit a fairly shallow one, a few more cuts across his thigh and face, and a possible concussion.

Flashbacks kept hitting him— though, did it even count if he really _was_ trapped here again? Further experimentation, being forced back into the arena, torture and death— those things were all too likely now. Still, even if they did nothing but leave him here, this place was full of trauma and pain that he couldn’t escape. Even if he hadn’t been chained like this or left without food and water, just being back in one of these prisons was torture in itself.

Why _had_ they just thrown him in a cell and left him? Not that Shiro thought all too highly of himself, but wasn’t the Black Paladin an important prisoner?

Of course— they wanted to get rid of that notion, to remind him that he was just another slave. Remind him that he belonged to the Galra Empire.

Shiro wasn’t sure when he started crying, tears running silently down his cheeks, but at some point he felt them drying on his face and realized.

This wasn’t how he’d wanted to be found, but he had been.

Ashamed, he kept his eyes on the floor as he saw who was entering the cell. “Please don’t look at me,” he rasped. “I’m sorry.”

“Shiro, it’s just us— oh.”

Lance had noticed. Shiro squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as if trying to physically force the shame away.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. Would’ve happened to anyone in this situation. Let’s just get you out of here, okay?”

Shiro was dimly aware of Keith and Pidge at either side of him, Hunk guarding the door as they worked at freeing him. “M’sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s just a bodily function. It happens, it’s fine. Nothing to feel weird about, okay?”

“It’s gonna be okay,” Keith added as he carefully cut the shackles away. “We’re getting you out of here. Come on.” He and Lance caught Shiro as he finally fell from the position he’d been chained in. “We’re going home now. Just rest. You’re safe.”

——————————

Keith flew him back in Red. When they reached the Castle, he quietly brought Shiro back to his room, giving him couple of much-needed water pouches to drink and then helping him into some clean clothes before bringing him to Coran and Allura for assistance with the healing pod. Shiro was grateful for the small gesture of letting him change first— he knew it was stupid to feel so humiliated over something that could have happened to anyone, but his Galra captors had always had a way of making him feel disgusting and pathetic that now extended into his perception of everything he did.

Beyond the embarrassment, he couldn’t believe he’d let the others see him so wounded and weak. He was supposed to be their leader, and they were just kids. And _they’d_ had to rescue _him_. How useless was he?

——————————

When Shiro got out of the pod, his head felt much clearer, and his body less of a wreck. The others were all gathered around to wait for him, and happy to see him feeling better. “Hey, Shiro!” Hunk pulled him in for a hug.

“Hey,” he said awkwardly. After everyone had settled down a bit, he added, “Thanks, everyone. I’m sorry I put you all in that situation, but it won’t happen again.”

“What do you mean?” Allura looked confused.

“I mean… you shouldn’t have had to come save me. I should have handled things better, and I’m sorry.”

“Shiro, that isn’t your fault.”

“Of course it is. I’m responsible for making sure the mission goes well.”

“You don’t have to handle everything alone, Shiro,” Lance said. “Don’t blame yourself for them hurting you.”

“Thank you, Lance,” he said kindly, not at all intending to take that advice.

Keith hugged Shiro, speaking quietly enough that only they could hear. “It’s gonna be okay. This isn’t going to happen again. I won’t let them touch you again.”

That was the kind of thing Shiro normally only wished he could believe. Right now, though… perhaps it was the tiredness, or some residual effect of the head injury, or merely relief at being out of that awful place, but he let himself believe it for the moment.

Let himself feel safe, if only for a short while.


End file.
